A fascinating discovery!

A couple of kilometres from our apartment, there is a monastery and church: O Mostério da Leça do Bailo. The other day Norm went cycling to investigate. It turns out that the site is at least 1000 years old! In the 12th century it became the headquarters in Portugal of The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. Canadians and those in a number of other countries will better recognize the branch known as the St. John's Ambulance Association.

During the Crusades, the Mostério was instrumental in taking this part of Iberia back from the Moorish invaders. The existing 14th century fortified church, still in good repair and in active use, is cited as an excellent example of the transition between Roman and Gothic architecture.

The two plaques read approximately as follows. Keep in mind we're just learning Portuguese!






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St. John of Jerusalem
(popularly known as St. John the Baptist)

It was from Jerusalem that The Order of Hospitallers was created (also known as the Order of St. John of Jerusalem).

This Order arrived in Portugal in the 12th century, established its headquarters in Leça de Balio, and remained here until the 19th century.

From the 16th century the Superior of the Order began to call himself the "Balio", previously having been designated as the Prior of Crato or the Commander of the Order.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries the Bailo and his "Baliado" exercised almost absolute power under the Kingdom and Bishop of Porto.
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The river Leça and the Monastery "Leça do Bailo"

As the oldest known document referencing the Monastery "Leça do Bailo" dates from the year 1002, its origin certainly is from the 10th century or even earlier.

By gift of Dona Teresa, later confirmed by her son Don Afonso Henriques, the Monastery was, in the 12th century, the first headquarters of the religious-military order of the Hospital which played an important part in the process of the reconquest.

The current facade of the church dates from the first half of the 14th century, being considered one of the best examples of the transition between the two architectural styles that characterized the Middle Ages: Roman and Gothic.

The Monastery possessed a vast conglomeration of properties - the "Baliagem" - which extended for several tens of kilometers. Watered by the river Leça and its tributaries, these lands over which the monastery held various types of jurisdiction were characterized by great fertility, contributing to the riches and economic power of this monastic institution.
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Today of course, this historic building is adjacent to a factory dating no doubt from the last part of the 20th century!

Cycling in Portugal

One of the few forms of physical exercise that I (Norm) actually enjoy is cycling. I'm not a "serious" cyclist; however in good weather in Ottawa I used to enjoy a 15-20 km circuit which was mostly along the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River – somewhat less than an hour on my old mountain bike.

That bike itself merits comment, because it was handed up to me by my son after being been written off by the insurance company of the driver that turned in front of him. I replaced the front wheel, front fork, and the brake cables Dave had snapped in an effort to stop, and had a cheap, decent mountain bike that served me well over several years. It did deteriorate this winter while we were still in Canada. With only one car between us, several courageous bicycle trips through ice and snow and freezing cold, salt and slush and muck were required. Nevertheless I was able to sell it a few days before we moved to Portugal, for $40, to a year-round bicycle commuter.

[Photo: Norm coming up the hill on our street]

Actually you wanted to hear about cycling in Portugal. I had some initial resistance from Audrey about investing in a new bicycle for a stay of only 11 months, but found one at the local supermarket for only €70 (C$115). A helmet, tools, a lock, a bell, and sundry other upgrades haven't yet doubled the cost of the bike, but we're getting close! So far I’ve resisted the temptation to replace the front sprocket set, which bends at the slightest provocation making the chain come off. Not to mention the front derailleur: this shifts between gears rather approximately and also makes the chain come off. Pretty much every trip, at least once.

[Photo: Norm in front of the "banda musica", a large statue of a marching band in the park near our apartment]

One of the required upgrades was a taller seat post. Our language tutor gave me directions to a shop that sells used motorbikes, bicycles and parts. It turned out to be crowded with old bikes and a partly disassembled garden tiller. Given my very limited Portuguese, I had taken the old seat post with me to show what I needed, "mais longe". There followed a lengthy exchange that was hilarious, exhausting, and embarrassing all at once. However we managed to establish that he didn't have the right size, but he could order one and I should come back the next afternoon; asking how much it would cost was simply more that I could manage. However I was delighted the next day on returning that my seat post had arrived and was indeed long enough. I didn't quibble at the cost of €10 (C$15): this seat post is made of some high-tech alloy of which my bike is hardly worthy, but it works fine. I also ordered a bicycle mounting clamp for my GPS, via Ebay, from Hong Kong, to be delivered by post, and was surprised that it arrived in our mailbox in less than two weeks.

Ottawa is pretty flat; the area surrounding the mouth of the river Douro is anything but flat! Having not had a great deal of physical exercise over the past six months, the constant up hill and down hill is pretty challenging. One typical ride that I downloaded from the GPS shows a number of ups and downs spanning elevations of 58m / 118' to 112m / 364'. My average speed is therefore a lot less that along Ottawa’s Rideau canal, but I’m getting my full quota of huffing and puffing.

[Photo Left: a local cobblestone road]

The other major difference in cycling here is the bone-jarring, teeth-rattling experience of the cobblestone roads. There are three choices for some routes: a normal paved road with traffic whizzing by at breakneck speed; a quaint cobblestone road with less traffic; or a quaint cobblestone road with traffic whizzing by at breakneck speed. The last mentioned are in the majority. The good news is that the drivers seem to be fairly alert and reluctant to maim, and there is less traffic outside rush hours. So far the bicycle has stood up to the punishment with occasional tightening of things like the handlebars; they have only come loose once while riding.

 [Photo Right: More cobblestones. Notice that all of the roads I cycle on, are uphill...]

Portuguese drivers at least here in Maia compare favorably to Canadian drivers whose average reaction time is four times longer (yes I made that up, but you get the idea), as well as to drivers in a certain other country, most of whom seem to see driving as a license to commit mayhem. I didn’t bicycle when we lived there!

Language pitfalls

Our dictionary collection!

As native speakers of a language we don’t consciously think about the things that make life difficult for beginners. There are many words in any language that are confusingly similar and sometimes they lead to interesting, embarrassing, or even threatening situations.

One of the first set of Portuguese words that caused us mirth was the following. All of them are adjectives shown in the feminine form, i.e. as the words would be used by Audrey.

• Casada – married. The s is almost like an English “z”.
• Cansada – tired.
• Caçada – hunted! The ç is like an English “s”.

The first lesson in our textbook involves learning to describe ourselves. Combined with the obvious opportunity to confuse o marido - (my) husband with o morrido - the dead (person) you can imagine why we laughed! With a bit more vocabulary now in hand, we can add to the confusion with cacada (junk) or caçado (sly).

It’s very important where the stress is placed in a Portuguese word. There are rules that would take several sentences to explain, but a written accent mark, if present, trumps whatever rule would have otherwise applied. In Maçã – apple – the accent distinguishes the word from Maça – club or cudgel – in which the first syllable is stressed. There is yet another word, Maca in which the “c” is pronounced like an English “k”: it means stretcher or litter. So far we haven’t managed to purchase a cudgel or a stretcher, but we certainly have tried. Perhaps it’s just as well you can’t get them in a grocery store.

All three of those words are feminine, but sometimes the gender, indicated only by the article o or a distinguishes the meaning of homonyms. A capital means capital city; O capital means capital in the economic sense. But just when we thought we had that figured out: Capital used as an adjective has the same meaning in English, as in “capital offense”, and can appear with either masculine or feminine nouns. We don't think we've committed any of those, yet.

We have also encountered a large number of words that are very close to their English and/or French equivalents, so many in fact that when I don’t know the word for something I can often get away with using the English or French word and modifying the pronunciation and/or the word ending so that it sounds Portuguese at least to my ears. However that can be risky, as the following reverse example shows.

We have friends here, a German missionary couple that are also studying Portuguese; their English is good but not perfect. Last week we had invited them by Email to join us on a short trip. The husband called Audrey by phone and apologized in English that they would not be able to come along because they were both VERY constipated! Audrey wasn’t as shocked as she might have been: we had just learned that the Portuguese word constipado means to have a cold. Frighteningly, the smaller of our dictionaries allows for both meanings – perhaps allowing for the possibility of being plugged up at both ends?

The US Foreign Service Institute estimates that their language students – already with other foreign language skills and assessed as having good language learning ability – can on average reach “general professional proficiency” (Level 3 of 5 levels) in Portuguese with about 600 class hours, plus homework and practice time. During our stay in Portugal we are expecting to have a total of about 450 class hours, albeit with the added advantage of being immersed in the environment. Pray that we may be good students so as to reach the highest proficiency possible in the time available.

Our apartment in Gueifães February 2010

This week we have been studying language related to where you live, the rooms in your home, and what you do and use in your daily activities. So I’ll give you a bit of a tour of where we live. Ring the bell for 4 D, which means go to the right once you reach the top floor. Not accessible due to 2 steps as you enter. The elevator has a maximum capacity of 4 squished people. The 2 locks on the door are formidible, with deadbolts that go into the floor and the lintel.

The entrance hall has 4 doors; small bathroom, kitchen and living/dining room to the left, smaller hall to the right. The rooms have a ceiling about 10 ft high, and there are 12 doors, which are very helpful when you have a heater on; and the 2 bedrooms facing south have large sliding doors to the balcony, or varanda, that faces the street, and the church bells. Like our neighbours, we lower the shutters on these doors after dark. In the picture below, you can see that our hosts use the second bedroom as a study/library; you can see our computer on the desk.

There is a complete bathroom, meaning with sink, toilet, tub and shower (literally thing that rains) next to our bedroom to the right. To the left of our apartment door is an incomplete bathroom, with just a toilet, bidet and sink.

A veranda goes along the north side of the apartment facing a small farmer’s field; and is enclosed with a washing machine. We finally figured out the hours with a cheaper tarif for electricity: 2a-6a (meaning Mon-Friday. Segunda-feira, or Monday, is the second day of the week, get it?) from 00- 07, and more time on the weekend. Since laundry takes about 2 hours, depending on how warm you want the water to heat up, it’s worth staying up until midnight to put a load in. Then in the morning I hang up the clothes on the lines strung up outside, very carefully so as not to drop them 5 stories, if it’s not raining. If it is, there is a drying rack for them inside. Both the kitchen and living room have doors that open onto this veranda. We hope to spend more time in the living/dining room once it warms up, though we have tried to understand some television. No Olympics for us, as the priority here is soccer, which is shown in every restaurant or café we’ve seen.

The kitchen has a tiny but very useful pantry where we keep our groceries. The stove has 3 gas burners, 1 electric burner, and an electric oven. In spite of my earlier fears of lighting the burners, I really enjoy cooking on gas, and only use the electric burner when the butane gas tank runs out. At the moment we eat all our meals on the little table in the kitchen. After burning the toast yet again, we decided to find a timer, but that was an expedition. The dish drying rack in the kitchen hangs on the wall, which I think is very clever as it makes good use of the limited counter space, and the dishes drip onto the stainless counter.

The bathrooms, verandas, and kitchen floor have ceramic tiles, and the walls are covered with typical Portuguese ornate tiles. The other rooms have hardwood floors, with lots of carpets and mats.

Welcome to our blog!

Yes it's true, after months of foot-dragging by Norm (who thinks Emails and Facebook are just fine, why yet another communications medium?) we have finally and officially joined the Blogosphere!

We're going to try and keep our friends and supporters - of whom we are blessed with many - up to date on random, not-necessarily-but-sometimes-important aspects of the journey on which God is taking us. This blog will supplement rather than replace our periodic, more formal updates in Email and letter form. At the same time it will have a more permanent character than our Facebook posts.

The blog title was a favourite saying of Norm's late mother, Blanche Henderson, who led an often too exciting life as a missionary in Angola in the 1940's and 1950's and later in Zambia in the 1960's. Some have said that the excitement was largely the consequence of her husband Dr. Alex's adventurousness, and that the trend continues... By "some" I mean primarily those other brave women who have married Hendersons and you know who you are! But so long as she retained her capacities Blanche didn't weaken, and their long life of service together to Jesus Christ was certainly of eternal value to thousands in Africa and in Canada alike.

We pray that our journey, which we will share with you here, may reflect some of the effectiveness of those that have gone before us. At the same time, this is not merely an exercise in following family footsteps. The Scripture, notably the Psalms make clear that nothing of eternal value can be accomplished apart from God. Shifting from the image of travelling to that of building, Psalm 127 - in Portuguese, Salmos 127 - has been the foundational text for our marriage, in fact the reference has been engraved in Audrey's engagement ring for just over 37 years. Hence our choice of URL!

Left to Right:
Marion (Otten) Braithwaite,
Blanche Henderson,
Norman Henderson, and
Dr. Alex Henderson
Photo taken at Mukinge Mission Hospital
in Zambia, c. 1965